


The Cup

by AlexandriaAndrews



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga), Code Name: Sailor V
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:55:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28245036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexandriaAndrews/pseuds/AlexandriaAndrews
Summary: We'll get back to this
Comments: 5
Kudos: 4
Collections: Senshi & Shitennou Mini Bang 2020





	1. Crystal Tokyo

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> Welcome to my 2020 ssmb fic! This story very much deviated from its original conception, and I have experimented a bit with narrative. The lovely minakosaino provided a playlist to accompany this story, which you may find here at spotify:  
> [ Red Gold Yesterday](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1q9riSOC4k0whKSpdMjJvX)  
> She made such a wonderful playlist and cover art that truly captured the essence of the story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
> 
> I also want to thank everyone who had eyes on this fic during the writing process, particularly Meteora Circosta, who is a wonderful cheerleader and friend.

I woke up with the taste of champagne in my mouth. I recall drinking it slowly, letting the bubbles dance on my tongue as a last reminder of effervescence. We were laughing at a particularly good barb from Haruka, her arm draped lazily over Michiru’s shoulders, so hard that I barely noticed the twinge of sadness in her grin. The world celebrated New Year’s raucously down on the busy streets below us, bells clanging loudly over the sound of crowds. Hotaru lowered the Glaive quietly while we were distracted. I don’t remember the twilight falling, but the last sight I recall was the moon full and bright in the sky; stars twinkling in and out from behind the clouds. A millennium went by in an instant. 

The world I woke up in was so quiet. The air was crisp and fresh, and the sun refracted off the crystal walls in sparkling rainbows. I’d never quite heard birds so clearly in Tokyo before. Sounds of Earth renewed seemed to roar in the absence of trains, cars, chatter, and the din of an urban lifestyle. Quite frankly, the sound grated on my ears. I had never really enjoyed the countryside. A Crystal Palace had formed in Usagi’s dreams. The palace had enveloped us in our slumber. It was splendid. Unfortunately, despite Usagi’s best intentions, it was also completely to her tastes. The first few hours after we awoke were spent browsing the palace plaza.The base of it was Sankakusu, the Delta towers still peeking through. It made sense; we had celebrated New Year’s in Michiru’s and Haruka’s penthouse, fireworks shooting off at the end of the world. Still, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the idea that an entire district had been wiped out to build a single, massive palace town. Granted, it was a small, reclaimed island of land in Tokyo bay, but it had been a bustling hub once. Greater Tokyo appeared to be in a much different shape.

The palace town was composed of a labyrinthine web of corridors, upper walkways, hidden tunnels, gardens, shrines, a medical facility that rivaled the top Tokyo hospitals, a command center that looked as if it belonged to an alien race that far surpassed us with technology I had never considered (Ami and I felt most at home here), libraries, pools...it would take us years to discover everything Usagi had dreamed up. I even stumbled into Mugen Academy once. The entire school remained intact somehow. But the pièce de résistance was the central palace. It loomed over the plaza from great archways sprouting from the delta towers as if it was a castle in the clouds.

Each of us seemed to have an entire village in the maze of corridors. We could tell because the styling of the areas changed to suit more of our own personalities. My area was lux and modern—well, early twenty-first century modern—with touches of my brief rise to stardom popping up here and there. I discovered a production studio with a stunning loft above it and knew this was my home. I also had a wing in the palace to call my own. My bedroom windows overlooked the city, perched high above the grounds. I didn’t know for sure whether it was to keep watch or because she thought I would like that view the best. Makoto’s wing was warm and comfy. Plants perched in windows thrived in the sunlight. Ami’s was clean, crisp, and sterile. Watercolors graced the walls, and a grand harp sat in the middle of her sitting room. Rei’s wing looked the most traditional, but I could tell she felt it was a pale simulacrum for Hikawa. It wasn’t until we counted—thirteen separate _dedicated_ living spaces—that we realized something more was going on. After all, we were a group of nine. Who did the extra four wings belong to? I had an inkling, and it made me a little ill to consider the possibility.

The city simply shined. The reason we named it Crystal Tokyo was because the combined forces of the Silver and Golden crystals had changed the landscape. Beyond the palace, crystal spires had erupted all over. They had combined with the rubble of the city structures, reinforcing some buildings, completely supplanting others. Some of my favorite buildings had a look of crystalized kintsugi. They glowed with an otherworldly glimmer.

Tokyo, as I had known it, was gone, however. There were empty spaces, grass, and forests that hadn’t been there before. In the distance, the ocean sparkled a deep aqua blue. It was so different from the steely gray color I could remember. I even saw dolphins playing in the waves once on one of my walks along the shore. What remained of the city looked as if it had been made of glass instead of steel, wood, and stone.

What remained of the rest of the world...we had no idea.

The mundane days of exploring ended one morning as I was sitting in the command center, Artemis perched on the console. We were staring at a new light that had flickered to life in the Minato Ward, just a short distance from my childhood home. The green light blinked like a beacon. Shortly after, three other lights, of three different colors flared across the map. I groaned.

“Do you think—?” Artemis began to ask before he was cut short by the door bursting open. A haggard Mamoru stood in the doorway, panting. Usagi was barreling after, stopping just short of plowing into him.

“I had a vision,” he muttered before staggering into the command center and collapsing onto the nearest chair. Usagi stood behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders. Her brow was furrowed as she looked up at the screen. I noticed the pink stone clutched in Mamoru’s hand, and my heart sank. Mutely, I turned from him and glanced back at the screen, fixating on the pink light blinking in the north.

“They’re back,” I finally managed. I turned to look at Mamoru.

He tore his gaze away from the screen and stared at me in return. “Yes.”


	2. Discovery

The command center was pin-drop silent despite the eight of us that had gathered in the room. We stared at the screen waiting for someone to break the silence while each grappling with our own range of emotions.

“Well, someone is going to have to go and confirm,” Rei finally said.

“I’ll go,” Makoto and I said in unison. We looked at each other.

“There’s four of them. And they’re not close together, either,” Ami pointed out. “Plus, we don’t know what the status of transportation is. Are there any roads left? Do cars still work? Do we have fuel? I fear this is a bigger undertaking than it appears.”

Makoto cracked her knuckles and leaned back in her seat. “I’m confident I could at least make an electric car work,” she said.

Ami gave her doubtful look and shook her head. “It’s not that simple, Mako-chan.” She walked up to the console and flexed her fingers before sucking in a deep breath. Touching the console lightly with her fingers, she pinched to zoom in on the map. She made a little ‘huh’ sound as if she was surprised the console responded to her. “We’re on an island. Usagi, did you consider how to get off the island in your dream?” Usagi flushed and mumbled a response we couldn’t hear. The screen zoomed in on what had once been a railway heading out of the island. The image on the screen gave us a sobering reality. Rails were askew and part-way off the track. Further down the line, the piles that had held up the track were crumbling. Ami turned from the screen and gave Makoto a pointed look.

“Well, we can fix it!” Usagi jumped up with excitement. “I can just magic us a new pathway!”

Ami sighed and turned back to the screen. “Usagi-chan, have you actually tried to ‘just magic’ something lately?”

“No, but I’m sure it’s not that hard.” Usagi grappled in her pocket and pulled out the crystal, the chain dangling from her hand. I raised an eyebrow and looked at Ami.

“Your pocket, Usako?” Mamoru’s voice rumbled behind her, a mix of amusement and incredulousness colored it. She rolled her eyes and held the crystal out in her palms.

“Okay. Make me a toy Artemis,” I said. I leaned my head on my hand and watched her carefully. Ami crossed her arms.

“That’s just ridiculous,” Luna said. She folded her paws under her.

“No, it’s not,” I retorted. “We know Luna-P is a thing, why not some caricature of Artemis?” He huffed behind me.

Usagi shrugged and held out the crystal in both her hands, closed her eyes, and we waited.

“You gotta really want it, Usagi-chan,” Makoto piped up.

The crystal remained dormant despite Usagi screwing her face up in concentration, her tongue just barely sticking out. She tried for a few more minutes before sighing and dropping her hands to her sides. “Stupid rock,” she muttered.

“The solution is obvious,” Rei said from her perch on the edge of the computer console. “If we must do this,” she looked pointedly at Mamoru before going back to examining her nails, “shouldn’t we just, oh, I don’t know...teleport out?”

“Well…” Ami drew the sound out as she scrolled around the screen. “I suppose so.”

“It’s not like you’re going to have to perform a ritual anymore,” Artemis said. “Your powers are all well beyond that.”

I was growing sick of drawing the process out. I stood up. “It’s decided. Mako and I will go and investigate.”

“You’re not leaving me here,” Mamoru said. “I’ll go get Kunzite. That’s my hometown anyway.”

I pointed back up to the screen. “Jadeite’s in my old neighborhood.”

“The other two are closer together. I don’t mind doing both.” Makoto said.

“Good, I want nothing to do with this,” Rei said as she slid off the console. “I’ll stay here with Usagi and protect her, like I’m supposed to.” She swayed out of the room. The rest of us looked at each other, puzzled.

I sighed. “All right, so what do we need to do to prepare?”

Mamoru and Ami simultaneously launched into medical chatter. It was going to be a long time until we had ourselves ready to go.

***

The orange light dissipated quickly as my feet landed on the ground. My henshin seemed to melt off as I took a few steps forward. I found myself in the middle of an abandoned street, broken down cars and doorways with half-unhinged doors everywhere I looked. _“How did it happen for everyone else? Did they just go to sleep as well? Was it painful? Did people linger for a while?”_ With each block I walked, the ideas of the end of the world spiraled through my head. How much of the Earth survived? Were other countries untouched? The eerie feeling of being truly alone somehow made my hackles rise.

Walking through the remains of my old neighborhood was spooky. The eerie silence resonated even stronger now that I was down in the ward, and I severely missed the hubbub and bustle on the street. I passed by my childhood home and stared at it a long time. Compared to other buildings on the street, it looked pristine. I hadn’t even planned on going near it, but my body seemed to be on auto-pilot. A knot of nausea formed in my stomach, and I knew I couldn’t enter it. I could envision my mother puttering around the house doing chores while my father was at work. The loss of them suddenly felt overwhelming. I swallowed hard to force down the tears that were threatening and forced myself to keep walking. Perhaps later I could muster up the courage.

The tablet vibrated in my pocket after I had walked a few more blocks. Now that we all had similar versions of Ami’s micro-computer, it was much easier to track down targets. This meant I was close to the location of Jadeite. I wondered what he looked like now. After taking a few more steps, the tablet vibrated more strongly. Pulling the tablet from my pocket, I thought of how much I missed my phone, and how this was a poor substitute. The screen blinked to life, and a map glowed up from the screen. The blinking green dot was a few blocks away down an unassuming residential street.

I followed the path the tablet had laid out until I was standing in front of a ten-story apartment building. The map on the tablet zoomed in to the seventh floor. The image showed the layout of the apartment in real-time, including furnishings and other obstacles. It was a little creepy, if I am being honest. I pocketed the tablet once more and craned my head back to see how I might get into the apartment building. I could scale the balconies, but it would be easier if I transformed. Frowning, I relaxed into the magic and felt myself shift into my senshi form. The fuku felt tight and uncomfortable for the first time I could remember. Such a short skirt was now no longer desirable. I sighed and jumped, landing on the closest balcony.

Jumping up six stories was going to be harder than I thought. My balance was off, not to mention I was way more out of shape than I knew. I decided to take my time, trying not to look into people’s apartments, and ignoring the last vestiges of the life I used to know. Finally, I reached the seventh floor and knew I was there. Aside from having gauged the journey, I simply felt him. The magic was alive and it felt familiar. I was a bit taken aback at how similar it felt to encountering my fellow senshi in my days before we had all awakened.

Sliding the glass door of the balcony open, I was hit with the warm, stale air that had been locked in the apartment for so many years. It still had a tinge of death to it that made my stomach drop. Jadeite was not alone. I closed my eyes to steady myself. The apartment had cracking walls and soft spots in the floor that I found as I moved closer to the bedroom. Why the tablet hadn’t prepared me for the sight I saw inside the bedroom, I didn’t know.

Jadeite’s body lay in repose, as if he had just gone to sleep, his arm still draped around the bones of the body that had been lying against him. I watched him closely for a few seconds measuring the depth of his breath as his chest rose and fell. The stark contrast between the soft, living flesh of his arm and the dried, brittle bones of the small frame he held simply wasn't fair. Bile rose sharply in my throat as my hands flew up to my mouth. I had encountered death before, but not innocently or organically. This was our fault. That person shouldn’t have been a victim of our coming into power. Just how many people were we supposed to rule over if everyone else was dead?

I needed to work quickly. I yanked my choker off and threw it aside, hoping to stop the feeling of pressure against my throat as bile continued to rise. Jadeite would have to come with me. A sickening crack of bones breaking sounded as I tried to pry his body out of the bed. The skeleton’s wrist and hand remained on his chest after my initial tug. The bones were so fragile, they splintered into several pieces with each movement I made, cascading off his chest into the recesses of the bed. Crouching at the side of the bed, I tugged him part-way off and slid his prone body across my back. He was so heavy. I grunted as I stood up, swaying a bit under his weight. Backpedalling through the door, I caught sight of a photo of the two of them askew on a wall. She had been so pretty. And she looked so similar to Rei. I turned swiftly and stumbled out of the balcony door. I didn’t even care how hard I would hit the ground if I jumped the seven stories straight. Or how difficult it would be to land with an extra hundred-plus pounds of unwieldy dead weight throwing off my balance. Pain would actually feel good at this point, countering the surreal experience of being in his room.

I landed awkwardly, falling on to my bottom hard after my feet went out from underneath me. Jadeite’s body flopped backward with a thud. It didn’t sound as if I had broken any bones—well, mine or his. He still looked so peaceful as he slumbered. I sucked in deep breaths as I lay back on the ground, trying to get the stench from the house out of my nose, and to steady the weakness I felt in my limbs. The vomit was coming again, and this time I couldn’t stop it. I rolled to my side, so as not to choke on it. More deep breaths. This had been one of the most memorable experiences I’d had as a senshi, and it wasn’t particularly enjoyable. Once I was done, I leaned against him and pulled out my communicator.

“Target found, I’m on my way back.” I waited a few moments.

“I’m ready for him.” Ami’s voice was unsettlingly clear. “Bring him right to the hospital wing.”

“Oh, I’m coming right for you, friend,” I responded. “Dude is heavy.”

“Noted,” Ami replied. “See you shortly.”

I closed the communicator and let my arm drop to my side. The sky was so blue, the sun was so warm, the air smelled so clean. Earth had healed itself in our absence. The birds—damn them—continued to chirp. And none of it, none, was fair. I turned to study Jadeite. He seemed to live such a normal life. Had he really been evil? Did he remember any of it? He had the same sort of westernized traces in his features that I did. No wonder he was living in Minato. I flipped back towards him and kneeled over him, grasping both shoulders. Time to pray that I could pull him through space and time with me.

“Mamoru wants you for some reason. Guess it’s time to go.” I closed my eyes and gripped tight. It was a consolation when the feeling of floating felt sluggish.

***

 _Thud._ Ami startled when I appeared in the room she had been preparing for Jadeite.

“I warned you,” I said.

“Well, yes.” Ami leaned over him to study him. “Interesting. He looks so young.” She turned back to the table she was preparing. “The gel Mamoru and I developed seems to be working with the others. It’s a slow waking process, but I think that’s better than a shock of magic to wake up suddenly. Who knew we could infuse viscous substances with power from the crystals?”

I nodded, not quite listening to her ramble, having checked out after “others” was mentioned, wondering who else was now within our walls, and what would happen once they awoke. Was Kunzite here already?

Ami had paused in her speech. “So...do you want to do it then?”

“Do what?” I mumbled. I had shifted to lean against the platform of the exam table. 

Exasperated, Ami pursed her lips at me and repeated herself slowly. “Get him undressed, the gel needs to have full contact with his skin to work. And I’m getting the tank filled.”

It all sounded so clinical and impersonal. Did Ami even see the person in front of her? He wasn’t an actual corpse. Yes, he may now be considered a patient of hers, but that didn’t excuse her tone. This was a man who had a life potentially never knowing anything about us or magic or anything supernatural. He had a home and parents and a career. And a girl...

I considered complaining. I had already pried him from his dead lover’s brittle bones. How much more indecency could I bestow upon the poor man? I shrugged. He wasn’t wearing much, just a pair of pyjama bottoms. Tugging at the elastic waistband I settled for simply averting my eyes and staring at his feet as I slid the pants off his legs.

“Let’s get him in,” Ami said. Her face was a bit pink as she bent down to help lift him. I wanted to needle her for it, but didn’t have the energy. Together we lifted him up and placed him in the tank. We stood on opposite sides of the table and locked eyes for a moment.

“Ehm, should we cover him with something at least?” I asked. Ami nodded furiously and turned to open a cabinet in the room which had a plain white sheet in it. She flung it so it fanned out and then draped it over the sides of the tank.

“Well, we’ll see you on the other side, for better or worse,” Ami said to the man.

“I never want to have to do something like that again,” I said as we exited the room.


	3. In Consideration of Consciousness

Riisa was gone. He knew it as soon as the shimmer of light that had held his twenty-something body in stasis had faded. He desperately wanted to fall back asleep. He tried to squeeze his eyes shut tighter, but they were already closed. There was an ache in his heart he had never felt before. Loneliness twinged with a deep void. He had never been more certain of anything in his life. Jacob wasn’t the crying type, but he certainly wanted to now. Her soft almond eyes and jingling laugh. Flashes of the last he could remember—New Years and the clanging of the bells, splitting the boxed jubako meal, planning the wedding—filtered through his foggy brain. He tried to swallow the pain away, but found he could not.

A strange black cat was staring him down intently with a sharp green stone clenched between her pointy teeth. He knew she was there, somehow, despite not opening his eyes yet. He could envision her in his mind, despite never having seen her before. The cat silently padded up to the bed and jumped squarely onto his chest. He felt the four paws land on him like four small, sharp, lead bricks. Next he felt a distinct thud as she dropped the stone near his collar bone, licked her paw, and swept it briefly over her ears, as if she were pushing back an errant hair in her face.

As soon as the stone touched the bare skin of his chest, Jacob jolted completely awake with a huge gasp in a room that felt like a glass prison. Everything was white, bright, sterile, and enclosed.  _ Riisa was gone!  _ It was his first thought upon opening his eyes to a blinding overhead light.

“My name is Luna,” the cat said. “It appears you are the reincarnation of Jadeite, Knight of Patience and Harmony; the Heavenly King of the East.”

He blinked.

“Sone Jakobe, right? I am here to deliver your stone. Endymion will be in shortly to meet you.” With that, she hopped off the bed and marched towards the door.

Jacob had never met a cat with so much authority before. He arched an eyebrow at her. Very, very few people had addressed him by his full Japanese name. Recently, it had only been Riisa. He squeezed his eyes shut.  _ Riisa. _ He tried to swallow again and found he now could, though it didn’t really help. His mouth was so dry.

“Do try to make yourself presentable before the King arrives. There are clothes in the closet.” Luna exited and there was a soft click after her from a door he could not find in the wall. There were no discernable hinges, handles, or even a frame. He reached up and rubbed his hand over his face. His skin felt rough and papery, his arm heavy and numb. Water was quickly becoming more essential.

Jacob looked down for the first time, realizing he was completely nude. His body was in less of a bed and more of an open glass sarcophagus filled with some sort of primordial goo, with a cotton sheet draped over him for modesty. Comfy, yet sticky. He peeled himself up into a sitting position and shook his head to get the dizziness out. It didn’t work. Sitting up also caused a massive headache to erupt. Physical pain surprised him. The green stone plopped into his lap.

Taking a closer look around, he realized it was less of a bedroom and more of a hospital room. Machines in the walls whirred quietly, and monitors showing information he couldn’t decipher blinked periodically. There was a small bathroom with a shower off to the side of the room. He picked up the stone and looked at it quizzically. It was a deep green with a beveled rectangular shape, smooth and glossy to the touch. There was a heavy weight to it. Jacob couldn’t decide if the weight was physical or metaphysical.

He sighed and threw his legs over the rim of his...bed...for lack of a better word. If he was alive and Riisa wasn’t—of this he was sure—and cats talked now, the least he could do was follow simple directions and take a shower. He was probably dead. That made the most sense. Interesting that he needed to shower when he was dead. This was hell, or at minimum, limbo, he was sure. He dropped the stone on the bed as he got up. One foot hit the ground, promptly followed by his full body.


	4. The Binding

It was a surreal feeling; his brain wanted to move his body, but his muscles simply wouldn’t cooperate. “ _ Well, I suppose that’s natural for a reanimated corpse _ ,” he thought. “ _ It’s strange being a zombie. I assumed one would be less aware.”  _ He tried to flail his numb arm above him, but was not even able to shift his body. Worse, he could acutely feel the cold tile beneath him, however, there was nothing he could do about it.

Jacob remained there, locked in his body, for the better part of an hour. To say he was frustrated would be an understatement. He couldn’t even yell for help, though he tried in every language he knew, but couldn’t get his mouth to open, let alone make a sound. The feeling of the remaining goo slowly drying on his skin itched and the chill of the floor had seeped through him until it felt that even his bones hurt.

Finally, the invisible door opened. A man entered, dressed in scrubs. Jacob didn’t know why, but he  _ knew _ this man. Not his name, mind, but as an essence. It was the closest thing to meeting a soulmate that Jacob had truly experienced. 

“Woah!” the man said.

_ Unexpected for a doctor,  _ Jacob thought.

“What happened?” the doctor asked, crouching down next to Jacob.

Jacob was silent.

The doctor made a humming sound, then stood back up and looked around. “Oh,” he said as his eyes fell on the green stone nestled in the goo of the bed. “You’re going to need this.” The doctor placed the stone in Jacob’s hand. This time he felt a current run through him, breathing life back into his muscles. The doctor slid his arms under Jacob and pulled him up.

Jacob knew those eyes. He couldn’t remember why. Very Blue. Very weird for Japan. Was he still in Japan? Japan… “Where’s Riisa?” he asked.

The doctor’s eyes darkened as a look of confusion flitted across his face. “I’m sorry, I don’t know,” the doctor said. Jacob simply nodded.

“The cat said the King was coming and I needed to look presentable. I’m thirsty and cold.”

The doctor stifled a laugh. Jacob was nude. “You’re cold because you don’t have clothes on,” the doctor said. He guided Jacob to a chair and eased him down to sit, and reached for the hand that held the stone. This time, Jacob reflexively tightened his grip on it. Gently the doctor took his wrist and pulled the stone out of his hand, sliding his hand in its place. Jacob felt the tingle again, warm this time. “So, I need to place this stone on you. Where do you want it?”

Jacob giggled. What a ludicrous question. Of course in limbo, or the afterlife, or wherever was, he would need random stones attached to his body. He pointed to his bicep. At least the doctor was giving him a choice, small mercies.

“I’ve heard this hurts,” the doctor said.

“Do dead people even really feel pain?” Jacob asked.

The doctor leaned back, surprised. “Dead? You’re not dead.”

“Oh,” Jacob replied.

The doctor took a deep breath, as if he was concentrating on something. “Brace yourself,” he mumbled. The doctor placed the stone at the spot that Jacob had indicated.

“Holy Fuck!” To say that at the moment the stone touched his flesh there was a searing pain was minimizing the actual flash of pain Jacob felt. If he had been standing, it would absolutely have leveled him. More so than the physical pain was the mental pain of an onslaught of memories, guilt, and a deep, bitter rage he didn’t recognize. He fainted.

***

When Jacob awoke he found himself clean and dressed in pyjama type clothes, with a pretty nurse flitting around his room. At least he thought it was a nurse until she turned around and he realized he knew exactly who she was.

“Hi, Mercury,” he mumbled. 

Ami quirked an eyebrow at him. “Ah! You’re awake!” She walked over to his bed which was now an actual mattress with soft sheets and a warm blanket and looked at the monitors above him. “It’s Ami now,” she said. She looked back at him and smiled. “And you’re Jacob, right?”

“Depends on who you’re talking to.”

“Fair enough, we all wear different hats.” Ami turned his wrist over and checked his pulse. “Good news, you’re healthy.”

“Well, I thought I was dead until this got branded into my arm,” Jacob said as he peered at the jade stone embedded into his bicep. He tapped it lightly. It felt as if he was just poking his own skin. “So strange,” he muttered. 

He looked at his hand and flexed his fingers. They looked like good, strong hands. But he felt a weakness in them like grasping a spoon would be difficult. Then he looked up and noticed the vibrancy of the colors in the room. And he could  _ taste _ the air, the antiseptic tang of a hospital. He tingled all over, and felt a thrumming deep within him that ebbed and flowed with his pulse. Jacob felt  _ alive,  _ but not in the sense he was familiar with. It was as if he was back to infancy and everything was new again.

“Does magic have a taste?” he asked.

Ami giggled. “Sometimes,” she replied. “But, you’ll not notice it after a while.”

“Mmm...spicy,” he said, smiling. The smile faded quickly. Now was not the time for jokes. Maybe it never would be again. He swallowed hard and tore his gaze from Ami’s.

She cleared her throat and jotted down something in a notepad briefly, then extended her hand to Jacob. “Alright, let me take you on a tour.”

***

Life flowed strangely from there on out. Jacob relearned about magic, a rocky history spanning several lifetimes, and his future role in this new power hierarchy. The lot of it left a sour taste in his mouth, moreso when Venus (he really wasn’t interested in using their names yet), finally told him the truth about Riisa. The haunted look in her eyes gave more away than he was willing to know. He paced about his new living space, noting the emptiness and sterile nature of it. He missed the homey touches Riisa had brought to his apartment, but found he couldn’t bring himself to go back for them. Instead, he wanted to believe that was a long closed chapter of his life and tried to move forward, but it was a struggle. Really, he felt that portion of his life was borrowed time, and now the payment was due.

As the others slowly filtered back to life, Jacob’s cabin fever started to set in. Though they lived in an island city, the lack of life outside of 13 people was suffocating. His only respite was Mamoru teaching him teleportation. The small practices let him lose himself for milliseconds, and the weight of his reality was lifted off his body for a bit. The void and darkness of the nothing space in between dimensions gave him freedom. It was the perfect schrodinger’s box: he was both alive and non-existent at the same time. He only needed to figure out how to lose himself forever in-between.

Eventually, the teleports would get longer and farther. The group as a whole was curious of the state of the world outside the limited space they occupied, and the shady timelord lady wasn’t telling. The plan going forward was, since the “Generals” as they were now (again) called, had lived outside of Japan, they would be poking around their former homes to check the status of the world. The key to this was that in order to teleport  _ effectively _ one needed to hold the image of a place in their mind. This gave one somewhere concrete to land.

Therefore, Jacob was headed home. To California. It would be a welcome change.


End file.
